The benefits of exercise are numerous and well documented. Exercise can reduce the instance and severity of many diseases. In addition, exercise can make a person feel better about themselves and provide the user with increased self-confidence and feelings of self-worth. However, many would be exercisers are intimidated by complex fitness machines and uncomfortable and unnatural motions associated with exercising. In addition, they may be reluctant to use heavy weights which can cause injury to the user.
An additional problem facing would be exercisers is that many exercises target only a single muscle or group of muscles. As such, many exercisers focus only on what they consider to be “major” muscles. These major muscles then become stronger than surrounding “support” muscles. This can lead to damage of these support muscles as they have insufficient strength to withstand the forces created by the major muscle. These injuries can be minor, causing soreness to the user, or major, causing severe damage to the user's body.
To help overcome this deficiency, various pieces of fitness machines have been created which create a vibration effect. The intention is that the user will have to work to overcome the vibration and maintain his/her balance, exercising the user's support muscles. However, these machines have a number of drawbacks. For example, the machines may create vibrations using a rotary cam which creates the vibration in a near-vertical method by pushing the pedestal up and down or using a mechanical crank style that moves in a seesaw movement (right-up, left-down).
However, these machines suffer from a number of drawbacks. In particular, many of these machines exceed ISO standards (international Organization for Standardization). Additionally, these machines can cause discomfort from excessive g-force and unpleasant feelings due to ‘shaking’ effect, as they do not produce true vertical movement. Further, these machines pose a danger to a user's joint and soft-tissue, because of the ‘shearing’ (lateral force on joints) effect. In addition, these machines produce negative effects with spasmodic and random vibration impact into the user's body.
Moreover, these machines can create a “reactive-force” entering the user's body. I.e., as the user performs the exercise movement, the resistance being used causes a reaction force into the user's body. The greater the vibration, the greater the reactive force. Reactive force can cause potential damage if the vibration is too strong for a user and the exercise movement becomes uncontrolled. Additionally, reactive force can also accumulate a “break-down” effect in the ligaments, tendons or other soft tissues in the exercising user, and their associated muscle groups. Further, reactive force is a dissipated energy, and means a less than optimal result to the exerciser, meaning the user receives a poor return on time and effort invested in the exercise.
Further, many exercise systems use unnatural movements. I.e., they involve movements that the user does not perform when not doing that particular exercise. These unnatural movements can cause injury to the user. Often, the user will not even be aware of the injury until it becomes a major injury because they do not perform that movement unless exercising.
Additionally, many of these machines have only a single setting. I.e., the machines are either on or off and the user is unable to select form various amplitudes and/or frequencies of the vibrations. This does not allow the machines to be used by individuals of different fitness levels. In particular, some individuals will be too new to exercising to use the machine while other individuals will be too advanced. Only the small group in the middle will be able to effectively use the machines.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an exercise system which produces vibrations that are substantially vertical. Additionally, there is a need in the art for the exercise system to allow the user to select the amplitude and/or the frequency of the vibrations. Further, there is a need in the art for the system to prevent reactive forces from entering the user's body. Moreover there is a need for the exercise system to allow the user to exercise using natural movements.